Although often cited as the most promising strategy for prevention, the social (or interpersonal-cognitive) problem solving approach to competence building has received disappointing empirical support. It is contended that efforts to date have not sufficiently attended to children's use of social problem solving skills. Thus, the model has been inadequately tested to date. The focal point of the project is an examination of the extent to which social problem solving skills mediate children's ability to cope with two critical interpersonal stressors: transition to middle school and high school. In addition, family and school-related variables hypothesized as facilitating or inhibiting the social problem solving abilities of children in grades four through nine will be assessed naturalistically and experimentally. Finally, specific curriculum interventions to promote internalization and generalization of social problem solving will be studied. These areas will be considered in a series of five studies combining longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs. It is expected that the results will indicate the viability of promoting social problem solving skills in the middle school and high school years as a means of building social competence and reducing incidence of behavioral, emotional, and academic difficulties. The data should speak to current conceptualizations of primary prevention, intervention strategies and have implications for mental health and educational policy.